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CONFUCIANISM, WOMEN, AND SOCIAL CONTEXTS

In recent years, there have been many discussions of the relation between Confucianism and sexual equality. Such discussions are not only of scholarly importance, but also practically signicant. However, most of these discussions focus mainly on textual interpretation. In this article, I intend to show that solely concentrating on textual interpretations of Confucian classics is not sufcient for revealing the relation between Confucianism and sexual equality, and that the implications of Confucianism for womens status cannot be appropriately understood without examining its social context. The same philosophical texts might mean something very different under very different social conditions. A philosophy like Confucianism that emphasizes social roles and responsibility functions very differently in a democratic society than in a totalitarian society. By putting Confucianism in particular social contexts, this article concludes that Confucianism may be androcentric and promote sexual inequality in a patriarchal society in which sexual inequality is taken for granted, but can be a very valuable resource for contemporary feminist philosophy and have positive impacts on womens liberation in a contemporary democratic society in which sexual equality has become a shared value. I. T he I mplications of C onfucianism for S exual E quality in P atriarchal S ociety A very efcient way to investigate the implications of Confucianism for womens status in a patriarchal society is to examine how Confucianism historically functioned in traditional China and how it has functioned in present China in regard to womens status. China was and still is a patriarchal society. Therefore, the way Confucianism functions in China in regard to womens status can, to a great degree, reveal the way Confucianism may function in this regard in patriarchal societies in general.
XINYAN JIANG, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy; Director of Asian Studies, University of Redlands. Specialties: Chinese philosophy, comparative philosophy, ethics. E-mail: xinyan_jiang@redlands.edu 2009 Journal of Chinese Philosophy

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As is well-known, the infamous oppression of women in traditional China1 was one of the worst in human history. Foot-binding and polygamy were among the most sexist practices in Chinas past. Even today, sexual discrimination prevails in China. Although womens status has been greatly improved in contemporary China, womens inferior position is still widely assumed without question. For instance, in many areas of rural China, model women are still supposed to be those who obey men, do all housework, and have no claim in important decisions. Very often, women cook when there are guests, but they are not supposed to sit together with guests to enjoy a dinner when their cooking is donethey are supposed to sit somewhere else as someone insignicant. This is the so-called dictum ). In women do not sit at the table (nren bu shang zuo cities, it is very common in a family that the wife takes care of housework in order to let the husband succeed in his career. Even in professional and academic areas, in general women either have no opportunity to succeed as well as their male counterparts or receive no equal recognition when they attain equal achievement as their male counterparts. One of the showcases for this is the main ) of various conferences where important or stage (zhuxi tai well-established persons are supposed to sit: Very often there is no Chinese woman or almost no Chinese women invited to sit at the main stage. Worse than that, there is rarely any challenge to such a practice. Conference participants (both men and women) take it for granted. The usual justication for excluding women from the main stage is that the women who attend such a conference are not as established as the men at the same conference. But this justication does not work to disprove the existence of severe sexual discrimination in China. First of all, if it is indeed true that Chinese women are so overwhelmingly less successful than men, this can only prove how oppressed women have been in China. Second, it is not actually true that all men who sit at the main stage of a conference are more established than all women who sit below the main stage. Womens achievements are easily overlooked in China. To deny severe sexual discrimination in China, some have argued that Chinese women are actually more powerful than Chinese men, since they can control their sons or husbands and therefore indirectly control Chinese society. However, this claim is not well grounded. First, most Chinese wives cannot control their husbands, nor can most Chinese mothers control their sons, as far as important decisions are concerned. In most cases, Chinese womens impact on their husbands or sons is mainly on those matters in their mens daily livesnot on important decisions in their professional and political lives. Even if there are women who actually have great inuence on their husbands

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or sons in important issues, their number is very small. Furthermore, even if such women can have social and political impact on their society through their men, their inuence is dependent on their mens willingness to allow it. The fact that these women have to exercise their power in society through their men in itself shows that women are not equal to men in power. In political and professional areas which are socially crucial, men in general occupy more important positions than women and have direct control of power in these areas. Although, historically, there were a couple of female rulers who had greater power than any man in their times, they were exceptions. Their stories only demonstrate what women were capable of doing, but not how equal women and men were. This is true of todays China. The denial of sexual inequality in past and present China has resulted either from an epistemological awoverlooking the whole picture of Chinese womens status but focusing only on exceptional or minority casesor from the interests of some Chinese men who want to keep their advantageous position over women. In such a Chinese social context, what are the implications of Confucianism for womens status? This question cannot be answered without a careful examination of the Confucian view of women and some general characteristics of Confucianism. We may start with a discussion of early Confucianism. By early Confucianism I refer to pre-Han Confucianism, the most important parts of which are the doctrines of Confucius and Mencius. In the Analects, there are only two comments directly related to women. In one place Confucius says: Only women and petty men are hard to be with. If you are close to them, they become disrespectful; if you keep a distance, they become resentful (wei nzi yu xiaoren nanyang ye, jinzhi ze buxun, yuanzhi ze yuan ).2 This comment usually has been regarded as obvious evidence for Confuciuss low opinion of women.3 However, in order to lighten or dismiss the sexist avor of this passage, some contemporary commentators have tried various interpretations. One of these is to replace women with female children in the passage so that the passage no longer seems to look down on all women.4 But the essential problems remain. Why does Confucius single out female children but not male children as an object of criticism? Does not that show that Confucius thinks that the female is inferior to the male? Another way to interpret it as less sexist is to replace women and petty men with male and female servants.5 But this is too far from the original text. Even if petty men in the Analects may be used to refer to domestic servants, women cannot be used in that way. Also,

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such an interpretation makes the text very trivial. Why would Confucius talk about male and female servants in this way? Some have argued that this passage seems not really to be against women, since it does not say that women cannot be nourished (if yang is translated into nourish), but only that they are hard to cultivate. Furthermore, as a matter of fact, Confucius has never said that men are easy to cultivate either.6 But, again, such interpretation does not show that Confucius respects women and men equally. Why does he choose to say that women, not men, are hard to nourish? Does not that show that he thinks that women are inferior to men? Although he does not say that men are easy to cultivate, by overtly saying that women are hard to cultivate without saying the same thing about men, he implies that women are harder to nourish than men and therefore inferior to men. In another place Confucius says:
[The sage king] Shun had ve ministers and society was well managed. King Wu said: I had ten able people as ministers. Confucius commented, It is difcult to nd talented ones, isnt it? The times of Tang [Yaos dynasty] and Yu [Shuns dynasty] were very rich in talent. [Among King Wus ministers] there was a woman, so there were only nine people. [wuwang yue: yu you luanchen shiren. Kongzi yue: cainan, buqi ranhu? Tangyu zhiji, yu si wei sheng, you furen yan, jiuren eryi. : : , ? , , , ]8

This comment usually has also been regarded as having a strong sexist avor.9 Although King Wu counted his female minister among and regarded her as an equal to the other nine who were men, Confucius did not. It seems to Confucius that women are not persons in the same sense as men are. That is why he thinks that King Wu only had nine talented people to work for him. Sexual equality is not an idea shown here. Some contemporary scholars disagree with this interpretation and have argued that this comment of Confucius is not sexist at all. On the contrary, according to these scholars, this comment shows that Confucius acknowledges womens ability to deal with public affairs and indicates that he believes that women are equally as talented as men.10 But such an argument has a difculty in explaining why Confucius said there were only nine people instead of saying there were only nine men. If Confucius believed that men and women are equal, he would have said there was one woman, so only nine men instead of saying that there was one woman, so only nine people. If one argues that by people or persons Confucius actually refers to men, then one is saying that Confucius does not regard women as persons. That will create even a bigger sexist problem for Confucius. ) is what Also, in the text, so there were only nine people (

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Confucius emphasizesstressing that King Wu only had nine talented ministers. If he did not intend to exclude the woman from the group of ten ministers, he would not need to express himself in this way. Having said all of this, I do not mean that disagreements in interpretation over these two comments related to women in the Analects can be settled easily. This article actually is not intended to be deeply involved in such textual debates. Since there are so few mentions of women in the Analects and we are not even sure up to now if these few mentions of women were really Confuciuss,11 concentrating our investigation on these few passages in the Analects will neither draw any decisive conclusion about Confuciuss views of women nor reveal the implication of Confuciuss doctrine for women in a patriarchal China. It will be more productive to examine the major ethical ideas of the Analects in relation to gender issues in their social context. (humanity, benevolence), In the Analects, virtues such as ren (righteousness), li (propriety), zhi (wisdom), xiao (lial yi piety), ti (brotherly lovelove and respect for ones elder brother) are what Confucius discusses most. However, he does not equally speak for both women and men, but takes men as the norm.The moral cultivation and perfection that Confucius teaches are basically about how a man should live. When he talks about xiao, although he does advocate being lial to both ones father and mother, he more often mentions what a lial son ought to do, and how important it is for one to follow ones fathers will. When he talks about the rectication of names, he says: Let the ruler be ruler, the minister be minister, the father be father, and the son be son.12 The virtue of ti, advocated by Confucius, is just about how younger brothers should treat their older brothers, not about how they should treat their older sisters. In the entire Analects, there is no saying about the right way to treat sisters and daughters. Clearly, what Confucius was concerned with is mens morality. Similarly, in the Book of Mencius, morality for men is the main concern and men are still the norm. When Mencius states the Five Relationships, he clearly gives more importance to men than to women. These ve relationships concern love between father and son, duty between ruler and subjects, distinction between husband and wife, precedence of the old over the young, and trust between friends.13 The rst one stated here is about the relationship between father and son but not between son and mother, daughter and father, or daughter and mother. As far as the second one is concerned, Mencius did not specify in what way the distinction between husband and wife should be made. But, given his approval of the distinction between husband and wife that prevailed in his time, he

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clearly meant that the husband participates in public affairs outside the home while the wife is in charge of domestic matters. Mencius is well known for believing that everyone can be a sage. He does not deny womens ability to be virtuous. However, he does not have the same criterion of virtue for both men and women. For him, the core of female virtue is obedience. Here is what he says:
When a young man comes of his age of 20 as an adult, his father gives him advice; when a girl marries, her mother gives her advice, and accompanies her to the door with these cautionary words, when you go to your new home, you must be respectful and circumspect. Do not disobey your husband. It is the Way of women to take obedience as the norm.14

Clearly, he is not just describing womens common practice of obedience at his time but also approves and advocates it, and regards obedience as the most important virtue of women. This is made even clearer if one continues to read what he says immediately after these words on womens virtue.
A man lives in the spacious dwelling, occupies the proper position, and goes along the highway of the Empire. When he achieves his ambition he shares these with the people; when he fails to do so he practices the Way alone. He cannot be led into excesses when wealthy and honored or deected from his purpose when poor and obscure, nor can he be made to bow before superior force. This is what I would call a great man [da zhangfu ].15

This is a picture of an ideal moral man. No one has ever doubted that these sentences, which are parallel to those about womens virtues, are normative. For centuries, these words have been widely recited and have become moral inspiration for both Chinese men and women to maintain moral integrity regardless of circumstances. However, if one reads Menciuss sayings in context, we can see easily that they are addressed to men and meant to set up the moral standard for men only. And, even if we just carefully read these words literally, we can nd that this is the case as well. These words are about da zhangfu, while da zhangfu in Chinese literally means adult man or husband. Furthermore, if we investigate the social function of Confucius and Mencius doctrines in patriarchal China, the implications of early Confucianism for sexual equality will become clearer. Given its endorsement of the existent labor division between men and women in a patriarchal society, its emphasis on the importance of hierarchy and role-playing actually greatly helped to defend and justify sexual inequality. Undoubtedly, early Confucianism did not discriminate against women as much as later Confucianism did in justifying the

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oppression of women. In general, its justication for sexual inequality is implicit rather than explicit. It is later Confucianism that overtly proposed that women are inferior to men as yin is inferior to yang,16 and that women should follow three kinds of obedience (obeying father, husband, or son).17 However, the undeniable and more severe sexism in later Confucianism is the outgrowth of the implicit sexism in early Confucianism, not a departure from or betrayal of early Confucianism. Confucianismboth the early and the later formemphasizes an individuals social role and his/her relationships with others. According to the Confucian theory of the rectication of names, each person should do his duties well according to his role in family and society. Otherwise, one is not entitled to his name such as father or ruler. Confucians are well known for stressing the signicance of ve relationships in moral life. As Chung-ying Cheng points out:
Given the ve relationships, an individual will dene himself only when he enters himself into these relationships and develops the proper virtues regarding them. In other words, an individual will realize his potentiality for good only when he fullls what is tting and proper in these relationships.18

To play ones social role well and to handle relationships with others properly is required for all Confucian virtues and is the key to being a Confucian moral person. Ren requires one to love all in accordance with relationships; xiao requires one to love and serve ones parents; ti requires one to love and respect ones older brother; li requires one to act and think appropriately according to ones social position; and yi requires one to do what one ought to do according to ones social role and relationships with others. These Confucian ideas reveal many truths about the essence of morality, and most of them are not in themselves sexist at all. But, if we put them back into the historical and social context in which they were rst proposed and closely examine what kind of social roles, hierarchy, and criteria for propriety they presuppose, it will not be hard for us to see their sexist implications. In particular, what has been presupposed by early Confucianism is the patriarchal understanding of these issues. What has been taken for granted by early Confucianism is the existent sexual division of labor and patriarchal criteria for morality according to which the proper role that women should play is only that of mothers and wives who ought to stay home and serve their husbands and parents-in-law, and take care of children and housework. Given such an understanding of the proper role of women in society, to justify and emphasize the moral signicance of appropriately playing ones role is to justify and intensify the oppression of women.

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This may be illustrated clearly by the following example: Provided a masters control over his servant is morally taken for granted in a particular society, to morally justify and emphasize that both the master and the servant ought to play their roles well in that society is not only to morally assert and approve the masters control over his servant, but also to justify and strengthen such control by encouraging the masters better control over his servant and the servants better obedience to his master. When women are in the position of mens servants, to make playing ones role appropriately the most important part of morality is actually to make womens subordination the most signicant moral requirement. Given the context in which Confucianism functioned in China, it is not implausible to conclude that historically Confucianism was androcentric and contributed to the oppression of women in China. Moreover, in any patriarchal society in which womens subordination is taken for granted, the advocacy of Confucianism will be as damaging as in China for sexual equality. The key point is this: Once a philosophy that emphasizes role-playing and hierarchal distinctions among people combines with a social context in which womens inferiority is taken for granted, this philosophy will serve the oppression of women. It is not surprising that Confucianism was a state philosophy and orthodox ideology in patriarchal China for over two thousand years. For many, it is hard to accept that great Chinese sages such as Confucius and Mencius have discriminated against women. But, they forget the fact that Confucius and Mencius were human beings who lived during certain historical periods. Like other great thinkers in human history, they have their limitations. A philosophical attitude toward the doctrines of Confucius and Mencius requires critical reection on them. Such reection will lead not only to a search for what is great in their philosophy, but also to an examination of where it is problematic or even wrong.

II. T he I mplications of C onfucianism for S exual E quality in a D emocratic S ociety The function of a certain philosophy is contextually determined. To say that Confucianism is androcentric and has negative impact on sexual equality in a patriarchal society is not inconsistent with to believe that Confucianism can ally with feminist philosophy and promote womens liberation in a democratic society. In different cultural and historical conditions, androcentric philosophies may take very different forms. For instance, in the West,

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individualistic philosophy is part of androcentric ideology, just as communitarian thought is in China. According to contemporary Western feminists, in modern Western philosophy,19 male biases are disguised with the concept of the abstract and universal agent and the pursuit of universality and objectivity. As many feminist philosophers have pointed out, the norm of the subject and individual in modern Western philosophy (since the Enlightenment) is actually male.20 Traditional Western philosophy focuses on the individual agent and holds that the agent is autonomous and can be completely impartial. It values rationality and abstraction, and devalues emotion and the concrete. Although the merit and historical role of such philosophy in promoting the individuals development and human rights are obvious, it has its own limitations. It fails to take womens experience into account and devalues those traits commonly associated with women. Due to the existence of male domination, male norms have become dominant and been regarded as objective and universal standards for all. Accordingly, those traits, experiences, and perspectives commonly associated with women have been considered something inferior and invalid. Regardless of whether men and women actually have different ways of knowing and reasoning,21 it is male-biased to devalue those traits that people usually associate with women, such as being caring, emotional, and intuitive. It is in this sense that the self or individual in mainstream Western philosophy is male-biased, and the individualism derived from such philosophy is not gender-free. Due to wide acceptance of individualism as such in the West, it is very common for people in Western societies to believe that they are independent of others and that each individual should be totally responsible for taking care of herself. Overestimating the individuals independence in the West, especially in the United States, has contributed to increasing the number of broken families. Although both men and women suffer from such a consequence, women suffer more. For example, although single-parent families are generally poorer than both-parent families, single-mother families are nancially even much worse off than single-father families.22 Furthermore, there are many more single-mother families than single-father families in the United States.23 Since interdependence between people is a reality, to deny it means either hurting those who need others care the most or letting part of the population take more responsibilities than others.24 In present-day America, although individualism is a norm, women in general actually take care of others more than men do. Women, even successful career women, are still primary caretakers in most families. Therefore, in reality, generally speaking, the more individualism is emphasized, the less freedom and more responsibilities women have. In this sense, individualism in the West is androcentric, or at least it

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functions that way. To overcome such sexism, it is necessary to emphasize the social nature of the individual and appreciate those traits commonly associated with women. No wonder contemporary feminist philosophy has discussed caring and responsibility so much and made great efforts to bring peoples attention to such aspects of ethics. In this context, Confucianism can denitely support feminist philosophy. In a society in which individualism and sexual equality are greatly emphasized and peoples roles in family and society rarely are discussed, a philosophy such as Confucianism that emphasizes the individuals social role and the importance of the family may not harm women, but promote better relationships and harmony between men and women, and urge people to do their duties well. For example, given the equal status of mother and father at home, to emphasize that each person should play his or her role well is to emphasize that father, not just mother, should fulll his role as a father and share equal responsibility in taking care of his children. That is why Confuciuss theory of the rectication of names that exhorts each person to do his or her duty well in order to match his or her title is often well received in classrooms in the United States as a positive doctrine.25 Obviously, as long as Confucians today abandon those sexist assumptions about women from patriarchal societies and accept the idea of sexual equality prevailing in modern democratic societies, their philosophy will be benecial to sexual equality.26 It has been noticed that there are remarkable similarities in ethics and epistemology between Confucianism and contemporary Western feminism.27 Many characteristics associated with feminist ethics and epistemology are also presented in Confucianism. Like contemporary feminist philosophy, Confucianism not only emphasizes caring and the social nature of the individual, but also values the signicance of emotions and intuitions in moral development and knowledge. For instance, for Confucianism, moral sentiments are crucial for moral development, moral judgment, and moral perfection.28 Confucian virtues such as ren, yi, li, zhi, xiao, and ti all require appropriate feelings and attitudes. In Mencius philosophy, moral sentiments such ) are so important that they are as the Four Beginnings (Siduan what differentiate human beings from other animals and what make morality possible.29 Also, early Confucians often appeal to peoples shared emotions and intuitions in their attempts at persuasion. In their works, philosophical ideas are often expressed in the form of aphorisms, apothegms, allusions, and illustrations.30 Those Confucian philosophers, especially Mencius, used analogical arguments more often than any other means of persuasion.31 By doing so, they have effectively appealed to peoples basic intuitions and common senti-

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ments. Obviously, Confucian philosophers believe in the power of emotion and intuitions and value their role in both ethical and cognitive activities. Male biases in Confucianism are concentrated in its specic interpretations of its basic concepts and its endorsement of sexual hierarchy, but not in its basic concepts and structures themselves. For example, to emphasize relationships in itself is not androcentric, but regarding the relationship between men and women as unequal and making obedience to the existing sexual hierarchy a virtue for women are androcentric; to advocate propriety (li) in itself is not androcentric, but considering certain sexist behavior and rules appropriate is androcentric. If feminists today provide new interpretations of those basic Confucian concepts such as ren, yi, li, and zhi, and put them in a contemporary context in which sexual equality has been widely accepted as a norm (even if sexual equality has not been a reality), they will greatly benet from studying Confucianism. Also, the Confucian appreciation of the signicance of emotions and intuitions in ethics and epistemology may help to demonstrate that those traits commonly associated with femininity should not be devalued. Emphasizing relationships and appreciating emotions and intuitions are usually regarded as feminine in the West,32 but they are important characteristics of Confucianism, a philosophy that was solely established by males and historically androcentric in China. This phenomenon seems to indicate that those so-called feminine traits have more to do with social conditions rather than sexuality and gender. Confucian philosophers value those feminine traits not because they are naturally more feminine than men in the West, or as feminine as women in the West, but because they live in a familycentered society and their philosophy is the product of that society. Although Confucian men were not primary caretakers in their families, their existence was so entirely dependent on their families that they could not do anything without them. Their social conditions enabled them to consider family-related issues much more than modern Western male philosophers. In some sense, women in the contemporary West live under similar conditions as Confucian men, as far as their dependence on family life is concerned. Although in general contemporary Western mens lives are relatively less dependent on family and less family-oriented,lives of their female counterparts are still family-centered. Contemporary Western societies are like what Youlan Feng calls a society whose socialization of production dominates its familization. In such a society,
. . . a society-based mode of production breaks through the walls of family, and completely liberates men (from family) but not women. . . . The reason why women are not completely free from family is

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that their responsibilities as mothers are not less than before; because they have to raise up their children by themselves and have no other alternatives.33

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Since women are still primary caretakers in contemporary Western society, they in general handle various family relationships and various issues related to family life more often than men. Therefore, they often pay more attention to relationships and give more appreciation to emotions and intuitions than men. Obviously, their doing so is not directly due to their sexual makeup but is because of their close ties to family life. Similarly, the family-centered society makes Confucian men value those feminine qualities and issues. However, Confucianism does not regard these so-called feminine qualities as feminine. For Confucianism, caring about relationships and valuing emotions and intuitions are desirable human traits but not associated with women. In their own terms, Confucians would never have considered their philosophy feminine. This clearly shows that the criteria for masculinity or femininity are culturally decided, although in different societies such criteria may overlap. This also explains why, unlike Daoism, Confucianism does not prefer femininity over masculinity, although it embodies some traits that are associated with femininity in the Western sense. Nevertheless, no matter whether those Confucian characteristics such as caring about relationships and emphasizing responsibility in family and society are labeled as feminine or masculine, they can be used to promote the feminist cause in a democratic society. How much Confucianisma native Chinese philosophymay help with the current feminist cause in the contemporary West is partially dependent on whether it can be accepted under current social conditions of Western societies. Individualism has prevailed in the West for several hundred years, because it grows from and ts there. But, the emergence of new communitarian philosophies, especially contemporary Western feminism, and their increasingly being accepted indicate that traditional individualism is no longer adequate in the West, and that community-oriented philosophy may be helpful for solving some social problems faced by contemporary Western societies. In this context, Confucianism without its presuppositions about social and sexual hierarchies may promote sexual equality and serve as good medicine to cure social ills caused by excessive individualism in the West.
UNIVERSITY OF REDLANDS Redlands, California

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Endnotes

An earlier version of this article was presented at the meeting of the Association of Chinese Philosophy in America, Pacic Division, the American Philosophical Association, Pasadena, March 21, 2008. I would like to express my appreciation to Xianduan (Judy) Shi for her helpful comments and my audience for their very stimulating discussion at the meeting. I would also like to thank Galia Patt-Shamir, Jiyuan Yu, and Kathie Jenni for their valuable inputs to and suggestions on drafts of this article. I am especially indebted to Professor Chung-ying Cheng for his insightful and helpful comments and suggestions on the last draft of the article. Additionally, I am also grateful to Banta Center for Business, Ethics and Society at the University of Redlands for awarding me a research grant for working on this article. 1. By traditional China, I refer to pre-Communist China. 2. Analects 17:25, my translation. All translations of Chinese texts quoted in this article are mine unless indicated otherwise. However, others translations are consulted for my translations. 3. For a representative expression of this kind of opinion, see Cai Shangsi, Kongzi (Shanghai: Shanghai Peoples Press, 1984), 24647. For a Sixiang Tixi very recent discussion of this passage, see Li Ling, Wo Du Lunyu: Sang Jia Gou (Taiyuan: Shanxi Peoples Press, 2007), 309; Wu Xiaoming, Wu (Beijing: Peking Dao Yi Yi Guanzhi: Chongdu Kongzi University Press, 2003), 28090. It is worthy to note that Wu has convincingly shown that the opposite of women and petty men in this passage are virtuous men (nanxing ), and they are superior to women and petty men (see Wu, Wu Dao Yi junzi Yi Guanzhi, 28182). 4. Chenyang Li, The Confucian Concept of Jen and the Feminist Ethics of Care: A Comparative Study, in The Sage and the Second Sex: Confucianism, Ethics, and Gender, ed. Chenyang Li (Chicago and La Salle: Open Court, 2000), 35. 5. Arthur Waley, trans., The Analects of Confucius (New York: Random House, 1938), 217, n. 1. 6. Paul Rakita Gordin, The View of Women in Early Confucianism, in The Sage and the Second Sex: Confucianism, Ethics, and Gender, ed. Chenyang Li (Chicago and La Salle: Open Court, 2000), 139. here refers to those ministers who were able to overcome chaos and 7. Luan chen bring order to society. See Li Ling, Wo Du Lunyu: Sang Jia Gou, 172. 8. Analects 8:20. 9. See Cai, Kongzi Sixiang Tixi, 24647. 10. See Gordin, Women in Early Confucianism, 140; Lisa Raphals, Gendered Virtue Reconsidered, in The Sage and the Second Sex: Confucianism, Ethics, and Gender, ed. Chenyang Li (Chicago and La Salle: Open Court, 2000), 225. 11. It has been argued that both of Confuciuss passages that mention women may be later interpolations, and therefore they may not reect Confuciuss view of women at all. See Raphals, Gendered Virtue Reconsidered, 226; and E. Bruce Brooks and A. Taeko Brooks, The Original Analects: Sayings of Confucius and His Successors (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), 177 and 240. 12. Analects 12:11. 13. Book of Mencius 3A:4. 14. Ibid., 3B:2. 15. Ibid. Here I follow D. C. Laus translation in Mencius (London: Penguin, 1970), 107. , Chunqiu Fanlu: Yang Zun Yin Bei 16. See Dong Zhongshu . . Lisa Raphals has argued that a hier17. See Li Ji: Xiao Te Sheng archical distinction between yin and yang and the explicit yinyang malefemale analogies did not occur until the end of the second century and the beginning of the rst century bce. It is in Chunqiu Fanlu and Liji that such a hierarchical conception of yinyang and its association with men and women rst clearly emerged and then

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18. 19. 20.

21.

22.

23. 24.

25.

become dominant in the later Confucian tradition (see her Yin and Yang, in Sharing the Light [Albany: State University of New York, 1998], chapter 6, esp. 142 and 168). cosmology was not According to Li-Hsiang Lisa Rosenlee, yin yang wuxing incorporated in Confucianism until the late Qin and early Han when Confucian commentaries attached to the Yijing were compiled (see her Confucianism and Women [Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006], 62). She has also argued that in the appendices of the Yijing there is the idea of venerable yang and base yin and that Dong Zhongshus hierarchical ordering of the yinyang is consistent with the former, but he explicitly associated women with yin and claimed the inferiority of women (ibid., 56). This means that from the moment when Confucians incorporated yinyang cosmology into the Confucian tradition, they valued yang more than yin and put yin and yang in unequal positions. What I would like to add is that Confucians devaluing yin is inconsistent with Chinese yinyang cosmology. According to such cosmology, yin and yang are two ontological contraries that exist in everything and make all changes and production possible. They are opposite but dependent on each other. Cosmologically, they are equally signicant. Given the equal status of yin and yang and the assumption that manwoman is one of the yinyang pairs, this cosmology implies that men and women are equally valuable and important. (For more ], A detailed discussions of the yinyang theory, see Yu-lan Fung [Feng Youlan Short History of Chinese Philosophy [New York: Macmillan, 1948], 138; Chung-ying Cheng, New Dimensions of Confucian and Neo-Confucianism [Albany: State University of New York, 1991], 95; and Xinyan Jiang, The Law of Non-Contradiction and Chinese Philosophy, History and Philosophy of Logic 13, no. 1 [1992]: 34. For a comprehensive discussion of the linguistic origin and the philosophical meanings of yin and yang in early China, see A. C. Graham, YinYang and the Nature of Correlative Thinking [Singapore: Institution of East Asia Philosophies, 1986], Occasional Paper and Monograph Series No. 6.) Chung-ying Cheng, New Dimensions, 156. Modern Western philosophy refers to mainstream Western philosophy that has been based on Cartesian epistemology and Enlightenment rationalism. See Luce Irigaray, An Ethics of Sexual Difference, trans. Carolyn Burke and Fill Gillian (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993); Evelyn Fox Keller, Reections on Gender and Science (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985); Lorraine Code, Taking Subjectivity into Account, in Feminist Epistemologies, ed. Linda Martn Aloff and Elizabeth Potter (New York: Routledge, 1993); and Alessandra Tanesini, An Introduction to Feminist Epistemology (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999). In this article I have no intention to enter the current debate on whether there are indeed unique female perspectives, morality, or traits, so I only talk about those traits that people usually associate with females without asserting that they should be associated with females. According to the most recent statistics (based on 116,011,000 households), in 2007 the median income in the United States was $72,785 for a married couple household, $49,839 for a male householder family (no wife present), and $33,370 for a female householder family (no husband present) (see U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, and U.S. Census Bureau, Poverty, Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007, August 2008, 15). In 2007, among 116,011,000 households, there were 14,404,000 female householder families, but only 5,100,000 male householder families (ibid.). The fact that in the United States there are many more single-mother families than single-father families partially shows that women are taking more responsibility to raise children than men; the increasing number of children in poverty in the United States also partially shows how badly children have been hurt by undesirable family situations. According to the ofcial statistic, In 2007, both the poverty rate and the number in poverty increased for children under 18 years old (18.0 percent and 13.3 million in 2007, up from 17.4 percent and 12.8 million in 2006). The poverty rate for children was higher than the rates for people (ibid., 20). This is based on my teaching experience.

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26. Although by sexual equality I mean equal respect and equal opportunity for men and women, not that men and women do exactly the same work in all areas, I do think that the traditional division of labor between men and women is incompatible with sexual equality. Given current social conditions, a housewife who has no income usually cannot be respected and valued as much as her husband whose income supports his entire family. Equal respect presupposes equal opportunity outside the home and equally important roles in family and society. 27. Chenyang Li has discussed the similarity between Confucianism and the feminist ethics of care. See his The Confucian Concept of Jen. 28. For an elaboration of the Confucian view of the role of emotion in moral development, see David Wong, Universalism versus Love with Distinctions: An Ancient Debate Revived, Journal of Chinese Philosophy 16, no. 34 (1989): 25172; for a discussion of the Confucian view of the role of emotion in moral reasoning, see his Is There a Distinction between Reason and Emotion in Mencius? Philosophy East and West 41, no. 1 (1991): 3144. 29. For Mencius ideas of the Four Beginnings, see the Book of Mencius 2A:6. For the most detailed discussion of Mencius philosophy, see Kwong-loi Shun, Mencius and Early Chinese Thought (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997). 30. This is one of the general characteristics of Chinese philosophy. For a detailed discussion of this, see Fung, A Short History of Chinese Philosophy, 1113. probably was the rst one who discussed this aspect of 31. Zhang Dongsun (ShangChinese philosophy. See Zhang Dongsun, Zhishi Yu Wenhua hai: Shangwu Press, 1946), 190. D. C. Lau has given a detailed discussion of Menciuss use of the method of analogy. See D. C. Lau, On Mencius Use of the Method of Analogy in Argument, in Mencius, trans. with introduction and appendices by D. C. Lau (London: Penguin Books, 1970), 23463. 32. It has been argued in Western feminist literature that women care more about relationships and responsibility. The best-known arguments for this were made by Carol Gilligan (see her In a Different Voice [Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982], 622); the ethics of care has been regarded as a typical feminist ethics, although not all Western feminists think that women naturally care about others more than men. Among others, Nel Noddingss Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984) is a very inuential work on the topic. ), Sansong Tang Quanji , vol. 4 33. Yu-lan Fung (Feng Youlan (Zhengzhou: Henan Peoples Press), 263.